Natural Weaning Among "Wild" Horses

Zorita's 2011 foal, Legado, hopes to get Ciente's 2011 foal, Esperanda, to leave off taking a nap and engage in some romping and playing on a sunny early spring day among the family band at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve on Manitoulin Island.

One day comes...it begins like any other day, with warm sunshine and the comfort of living among the family band--the only life you know--perhaps the only life you can imagine, for you are only thirteen months old.

The characteristic "driving" gesture is displayed here by the Sorraia stallion, Altamiro, on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve 

The tyrant stallion (your father) gives you "the look" and you wonder which sector of the landscape he will drive you and the other foals and mares to.  But wait!  Something is dreadfully wrong!  The mean dictator is chasing you AWAY from your family instead of toward them!  You do not understand and circle back into the group in the manner you have always been taught is expected.  He comes at you again, more aggressively, his intentions fortified by bites to your hocks.  Ouch!--you run away, as fast as you can, of course! 

Here, the Sorraia stallion, Altamiro, hazes and bites his 2008 son, Animado (out of Bella, now living in Cheyenne, Wyoming)

Not long, though...your herd instinct draws you back to the family.

Sorraia stallion, Altamiro, displaying an agressive gesture

Fire and smoke erupt from the stallion this time, and the biting and chasing become downright violent.  There is no longer any doubt--you will not be allowed back in the natal unit.  But you cannot run fast enough, though you are running as if your life depends upon it and your mad-with-anger sire slices his incisors one last time along the inside of your left hock.  The pain is so sharp you drop to the ground while the stallion bites your torso and neck, yet you somehow scramble upright and continue to run.  The stallion ceases his attack, shakes his head with a satisfied snort and returns to the mares and foals, brusquely rounding them up and driving them at breakneck speed in the opposite direction.

You have just been weaned and life will never be the same.

Mares, foals and yearlings in 2011 at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada

At Ravenseyrie we do not, ourselves, wean the foals from their dams but allow this rite of passage to happen naturally, as determined by the family band's own dynamics.  Not all of these "natural weanings" happen so violently--but all are quite abrupt--whether the decision is made by the foals themselves or is forced upon them by their sire, Altamiro.  Typically this happens sometime after the age of one, though several have been expelled earlier and Ciente's colt, Silvestre, wasn't ousted until approaching the age of two!  Some of the youngsters get targeted by Altamiro for further attacks and chases even after they have accepted his edict that they no longer can live among the family and have joined in with the alternate group of formerly expelled offspring who run with the domestic equines and generally keep away from the sectors Altamiro has deemed "off limits" to them.

Of course, Kevin and I have tried to understand this continued aggression perpetuated against his own offspring with no sure answers.  What is clear, however, is that these attacks occur only during the breeding season and are triggered by hormonal urges.  It is likely Altamiro first and foremost wants to impress upon any male offspring that he is the dominant sire and will not tolerate any breeches of roaming rights that bring the alternate group near the natal unit.  With the female offspring that he will sometimes harass even after they have joined the alternate group, we sometimes think it is an attempt at trying to disrupt the potential for inbreeding with their male siblings.  These types of chases always aim to single out one of his daughters and drive her away from the alternate group.  Unfortunately,  the ample, but limited landscape of our preserve cannot truly mimic the vast acreages of true open ranges where there is much greater offerings of non-related pairings to form separate bands, and this no doubt adds to the tensions among these horses.  Eventually, Altamiro accepts that his recently expelled offspring will be living nearby and together as a curious blended band and a tentative peace is restored.  At least that is how things have gone in past years--with variations.  There is no firm or set standard as these dynamics seem very fluid and ever-changing.


What follows is a pictorial documenting the expulsion of Ciente's 2011 filly, Esperanda from the family band:

The lovely Kiger Mustang mare, Ciente (sadly deceased) with her 2011 filly, Esperanda on a soft spring day at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve

On the 30th of March, a week after Bella gave birth to Gosto, Altamiro expelled Esperanda from the natal unit.  I was not on hand to witness the event as it took place, but had to search for Esperanda after taking note that she wasn't with the family for breakfast as usual.  Though Kevin and I searched for hours, during different times of the day in a variety of regions, we did not find her until the afternoon of the next day.

Often times, whether due to physical injury or mental trauma or both, the newly ousted youngster will hide in the various forested regions here at Ravenseyrie--of which there are many over the 360 acres of wilderness these horses are free to roam.  I always feel it is some miracle to find them as their primitive colouring blends so well with their environment.

Imagine walking through the forest, trying to spot a grulla coloured yearling filly.  It is almost as tricky as hunting for mushrooms, but even more rewarding when met with success!  On the morning we found Esperanda, we were aided by a light dusting of snow, providing easier to spot hoof prints and a brightening of the otherwise dim forest.

The yearling Sorraia Mustang filly, Esperanda, recently expelled and hiding out at the edge of the forest along the top of the less steep portion of the bluff at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve.

A close up view of Esperanda's hiding spot

It was obvious that like her older half-sister, Pinoteia, she must have needed a lot of "convincing" to get to the point where she fully understood that she was no longer allowed to be among the family band.  The scenario I opened this journal entry with is one I have witnessed on several occasions, and judging from the looks of Esperanda is a "rite of passage" she, too, endured.  She had sustained many surface bites that, for these rough and tumble "wild" horses is an everyday affair and of no concern, but unfortunately she also had a nasty deep bite to the hock that was oozing and inflamed and causing her to be very lame.

The wound Esperanda sustained from a bite to the hock by her sire, Altamiro.  The incisors had sliced across the inside of the hock diagonally, creating a wound approximately four inches long and a half an inch deep.

This same injury Altamiro has bestowed upon Encantara, Silvestre and Pinoteia--each taking about a month to heal, but doing so with minimal doctoring on my part and with no residual scarring or lameness.  I was feeling badly that Esperanda was in such a sorry state, but confident she would overcome beautifully.

Here is a series of photos showing the progression of the healing process:

Day Five

Day Seven

Day Ten

Day Fifteen

Day 23

Esperanda is tamed, but not "trained" and has never worn a halter so all must happen at liberty with her consent.  The only treatment she would allow me to administer was the application of an aloe ointment and light massage to the outside of the hock.  Later, after the wound quit draining, Esperanda liked to have me massage and itch around the wound site.

Esperanda would move to a new location about every three to four days, and sometimes we would not find her for a day or even several days.  The days we found her were sublime!  The days when we could not find her were shadowed with worry...  This unsettled situation, with Esperanda on her own lasted for over a month!  Each visit, however, showed improvement in her condition physically and mentally.

Esperanda, set up for the night at her top of the bluff hiding spot early on during her self-regulated isolation from the other horses.

Journal of Ravenseyrie author, Lynne Gerard, heads out on a hike with provisions for the Sorraia Mustang filly, Esperanda, recently expelled from the family unit and hiding in different sectors of a 360 acre preserve.  These hikes to bring food to the filly were undertaken twice daily, sometimes by Lynne, other times by her husband, Kevin Droski.  

Sometimes the lone filly would travel in areas where tracking was easy!

I remember the joy I felt the first time Esperanda came running in high spirits when she saw me coming.  After eating the grain, alfalfa cubes and munching some hay, Esperanda would ask to be curried and itched, which I was very happy to provide, especially because after exhausting myself giving the very last vigourous butt itches, this lone filly would reward me by putting on a show of high spirits--running, leaping and bucking around me:

On April the 22nd, I had an especially long and pleasurable visit with Esperanda.  It was on that day when I took the above photos of her putting on her athletic show, after which, instead of going back to her hay, or taking up grazing as usual, Esperanda decided to follow me over to where I had wandered to get a look at the lake from the "Top of the World" spot at the bluff's edge.  I then found a nearby log to sit down upon and Esperanda came along and laid down for a nap.

The Sorraia Mustang filly, Esperanda takes a nap near the bluff's edge with the great Lake Huron showing beautifully blue through the trees.

Esperanda went into an almost immediate deep slumber, complete with body twitching and dreamtime nickering.  How long had it been that she had been able to sleep with such abandon and sense of safety?  How long would it be before she would feel ready to join the alternate herd?  While I am always heartened at how well these "wild" horses cope with the times they are "going solo", I never feel completely at ease until they are once again part of a herd.

As it happened, that very same day, after awaking from her nap and putting on another show of high spirits, I asked this filly if she wanted to follow me to where I knew the alternate group (whom we refer to as "The Tribe") was grazing.  To my amazement, Esperanda, without hesitation, agreed and followed me approximately half a mile through the woodland trails from the far northwest, across the creek and all the way to the far northeast where The Tribe members were spread out picking at the newly emerging spring edibles.

There were initial pleasant greetings with the domestic horse, Zeus and the draft mules and then some scuffling among the "primitives" as they relayed the various hierarchical arrangements.

  



I left when everyone went back to grazing, with a glad heart that Esperanda had so easily integrated with The Tribe.  They were all still together in the morning and Esperanda came in to the holding pasture area where we feed The Tribe their breakfast oats, a bit hesitant, but then ran to claim a pan for herself.  Later, she was enjoying mutual grooming and dozing sessions with her new "family".

Esperanda dozes next to her full brother, Interessado

Unfortunately, that dastardly mischief-making stallion, Altamiro, came over to the east and chased Esperanda out of The Tribe and back into the woods!

The Sorraia stallion, Altamiro, the tyrant herd sire of the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve

There followed almost six(!) days of neither Kevin nor myself being able to locate where Esperanda was, or if she had been re-injured.  Dark days for us!  But then on April 28th Kevin checked the Ravenseyrie beach again and there she was!!!  The next day she was still there and I was able to get some nice photos:

Yearling Sorraia Mustang filly, Esperanda, down on the beach at Ravenseyrie with the great Lake Huron's famous North Channel as a splendid backdrop.

I also recorded some video clips of some of Esperanda's post-grooming frolics:

This was on the 29th of April.  On May the first, Esperanda came back up the bluff and joined in again with The Tribe and, at the time of this writing, has held her ground when her sire comes around and is still with her new herd!  Esperanda had been living alone for 33 days.  I think she taught herself a lot and is an amazing filly, but I sure would have preferred she had left the family band on her own, or left easy, rather than provoking her sire to use such roughness to force her out.

Our commitment to allowing these horses to live according to their own "rules" provides us with some terrific observations of the manner if which they conduct their affairs.  Most times these observations are joyful for us to witness--other times, well...not so pleasant to see.  Kevin and I continue to craft the skill of taking the good with the bad--or, better still, learning to not see things in terms of "good" or "bad", but rather going with "what is" and supporting all that these horses do with as much love and understanding as we can find in ourselves.

"You want something like a round-the-clock ecstasy.  Ecstasies come and go, necessarily, for the human brain cannot stand the tension for a long time.  A prolonged ecstasy will burn out your brain, unless it is extremely pure and subtle.  In nature nothing is at a stand-still, everything pulsates, appears and disappears.  Heart, breath, digestion, sleep and waking -- birth and death everything comes and goes in waves.  Rhythm, periodicity, harmonious alternation of extremes is the rule.  No use rebelling against the very pattern of life.  If you seek the immutable, go beyond experience."    --Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj from the book, I AM THAT.

 

Sorraia Solace

Esperanda (Sorraia x Kiger Mustang), several days after her dam, Ciente died

With Ciente no longer in corporeal form, some readers of the Journal of Ravenseyrie may be wondering how her filly Esperanda is coping with the loss. Esperanda is a little over three months old and even before her dam died, she has been supplementing mother's milk by grazing and browsing and munching breakfast oats just like her grown herd mates. After a bit of research (wherein I was surprised to learn that some large breeding complexes actually wean foals as young as three months) I decided not to bottle feed, or provide processed grain mixture unless I began to detect a decline in Esperanda's vitality and growth.

I had noticed right away that Bella (who delivered her filly, Altavida, several weeks after Ciente gave birth to Esperanda) was being especially alert to Esperanda, watching over her and allowing her all the same close bodily connection that she provides her own filly.

Esperanda grazing alongside "Auntie" Bella

While I didn't think it was essential anymore for Esperanda to consume mare's milk, I did rather hope that Bella might allow Esperanda to nurse off her, feeling it would be a special solace as well as provide just an extra measure of sustenance. However, during those times that I was with the family band, I had not observed Esperanda even attempt to nurse and I assumed that probably Bella's extension of fostering Esperanda was not going to include nursing.

I was given a gift on Sunday, though, when I happened to be collecting twigs and bark to bring back to the "captive" horses and chanced upon the family band hiding out from flies in one of our many Cedar forests. I went into their shady grove and while I was just hanging out with them (and swatting away flies, too) Altavida began to nurse. As she was nursing, Esperanda also put her muzzle under Bella's flank, though she was on the same side as Altavida and could not gain access to a nipple. However, as soon as Altavida was finished, Esperanda connected with a milky teat and began nursing, while Bella remained as relaxed as if this had been all along something she had been offering to Ciente's filly.

Esperanda also nursed on the opposite side a little later

It was a beautiful moment which filled me with tears of joy and thanksgiving.

Altavida (left) and Esperanda

I also captured a photo of young Destemido demonstrating another variation of the solace these Sorraia Mustangs provide for each other. As we can see here, the harassment of biting insects is made easier to cope with when one has a gentle mother (Fada) and friendly aunt (Tocara) to help brush the bugs off.

When the cold wind
Blows a chill through your heart
And the world
Seems unforgiving,
Be patient,
And persevere,
For always gentleness
And love
Return.
--L. Gerard

While it doesn't at all replace for me the loss of my close and dear friend, Ciente, I am sure readers will agree-- this type of Sorraia Solace is soothing to humans as well as horses. I am very grateful for the generous nature of Bella to look after Esperanda with such tenderness.

Esperanda

A Ravenseyrie sunrise on March 11, 2011 after another dynamic winter snowstorm

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. --Lao Tzu

I found I was rushing--in my mind--and it made my body tense, my movements unsure and clumsy and I began to question that everything would, indeed, be accomplished as it should. This foal should have been up and nursing by now, and yet, there it lay in the icy snow, exhausted and getting colder by the minute. Here in this beautiful moment, my sense of how much time things were taking made me worry that we might have our first tragedy unfolding here at the Sorraia Mustang Preserve...


Waiting with great anticipation for a third foal from Ciente and Altamiro began last May when Ciente did not come into heat. This stunning Kiger Mustang mare accepted the overtures of her handsome Sorraia stallion for a string of nine days beginning the end of March and ending in the second day of April. She was settled, and stayed in good form during the long gestation period and Kevin and I watched Ciente, along with the other horses inhabiting Ravenseyrie, with calm admiration for their naturally born adaptation to wilderness living.

But it wasn't until the month of February that my expectation of the upcoming foaling began to be tinged with worry for what kind of weather we might have on the island. February can be a decidedly harsh month on Manitoulin Island and many a March day is fueled with winter's wrath as well. Would the elements prove too daunting for the survival of a foal born on the range in Northern Ontario in late winter?

Should the conditions be brutal, we would plan to bring Ciente into the tractor shed where we could better monitor her. Knowing that to extract Ciente from the family band would anger Altamiro and cause great anxiety for Ciente and the others, we would only do so if we felt the situation absolutely required that type of intervention.

Throughout the month of February our weather was like a roller coaster, nice days with almost all our snow melting, followed by a deep chill with the thermometer dropping to -26°C over night. If it got warmer it snowed. When it stopped snowing, it got bitterly cold. And each new day, Ciente looked closer to foaling than the day before. She moved a little slower and became rather meditative beginning in early February, and she began cleverly coming up to the shed on her own for "specials" while the others were busy at their piles of hay.



I will share with you the notes from my calendar and some photos taken during that time.

February 14 / Ciente's udder barely visible but showing wax on teats.

February 24 / Ciente's foal shifted in the abdomen, is now carried lower and further back. Mentally, Ciente seems a little "spacey" today.



February 27 / Ciente's udder beginning to distend slightly, and showing wax dots


March 6th / Ciente definitely bagged up, the largest I've ever seen her udder, not unlike a suitcase hanging between her legs, especially noticeable from behind.


During this time, we watched Ciente obsessively, and one evening I for sure felt the foal would be born for Ciente's vulva was so warm and slack. But by morning with the temperature once again bitterly cold, that vulva was zippered tightly shut against the frigid air. Some days I was glad Ciente was holding that baby in and other days, when maybe we had three rather mellow days in a row, I was frustrated that she kept us all still waiting.

And we waited and waited, imagining that every slow step and lift of tail was a prelude to Ciente beginning her labour. All throughout the day, with binoculars ever present, Kevin and I gave each other reports on where "Fat Horse" was and what "Fat Horse" was doing. With all the usual signals seeming to indicate that delivery was near, I began to worry a bit that something might be wrong with this pregnancy.

Were it not for Ciente's serene attitude and her keeping up her daily routines with the other horses, I might have been deeply concerned that a problem had developed. Instead, we just kept up good expectations and waited and waited and waited. Our vigilance was two-fold: 1. we of course desire that we are available to assist the mares--only if necessary--when they foal (which doesn't always work out with semi-wild horses roaming an expansive natural setting) and 2. having been present when the very first foal (Animado) was born I wanted to know if Altamiro would once again help the mare with the foal and if the mare stayed with the herd or went off somewhere on her own to give birth as we are so commonly told happens in the wild. With the exception of Animado, I was always an hour or more late on the scene when the other foals have been born. I really wanted to be able to be with Ciente during this foaling. Would the fates allow for it this time?


March 17 / Ciente's udder dripping at time of evening feeding

March 18 / Ciente delivers a filly approximately 7:30am, and I am there to record it! Total gestation time, +/- 350 days


We had some more melting take place and the temperature was just a little above freezing when dawn came on Friday March 18th. Mistral's group came up as usual for breakfast, but not the family band. Through our binoculars we could see them at juncture between fields where the dying Maple trees are. I spotted Ciente and she was still "Fat Horse", but the band was acting edgy and definitely were not coming up for breakfast, so while Kevin took care of Mistral's group, I hauled out a load of hay to where the family band was. As I neared, I could see that Ciente had just delivered her foal! Hurriedly, I put in place all the piles of hay I'd brought out for the other members. Then I stopped to take a few photos. Altamiro was about thirty feet away from Ciente and watching keenly. Silvestre, Ciente's 2009 colt (who Ciente weaned off her milk in spring of 2010, but who was still tolerated in the family band for now) stood nearby.

I could see the foal was struggling to get up but was prevented by the amnion sac.

I was alarmed by this! Would the foal suffocate? As I hurried over and prepared myself to slide the amnion off from this foal, its struggling managed to tear the sac sufficiently that it's muzzle was now free, so I remained on the sidelines ready to leap into assistance if Ciente needed me to.



Twice Altamiro attempted to advance closer to the scene, but each time was driven away by Ciente so eventually he wandered off to eat hay with the rest of the family band and Silvestre was heading that way now too after receiving a rebuke from his mother. Whether Altamiro was intending to help or just satisfy his curiosity it seems that it was Ciente's choice to not have the stallion assisting.



At first, Ciente seemed as if she, too, was going to leave and go join the others to who were eating breakfast hay. I stopped her and gave her a cookie and told her she needed to tend to her baby. After one more long look at the rest of the family eating hay, Ciente got to work helping get the foal free from that slippery amnion sac.


The foal's attempts to get up had become severely hampered by the twisting of the amnion around its right front leg. Again, I wanted to intervene, but just as I began to reach out to slip that sac off, Ciente managed to get the foal to try one more time and the leg reached free of the sac.


Between Ciente's licking and tearing at the sac and the foal's struggles to sit up and stand up, after what seemed like an eternity, the foal was completely free of the amnion sac, but not in the clear of potentially harmful elements. Underneath all that snow was a huge pool of ice water and the tired newborn foal was physically exhausted and laying on a frigid surface.


I went over and took some hay from the family band's piles and put it under the foal. For its part, the foal took up a new struggle to get up and managed to quickly slide off from the hay, then fell back into the cold snow and ice water. Complicating this, Silvestre came around again, and again Ciente let him know she did not appreciate his presence just now. Thankfully Kevin came now on the scene with more hay and we were both able to lift the foal up on to a nice dry pile of it, away from the pool of ice water.


At this point, Ciente decided to stop helping her foal and began eating, so Kevin and I took over the job. We rubbed the foal with wads of hay and then some towels. During this time I was able to check for gender and found out Ciente and Altamiro had produced their first filly! Also during this time I got to witness this filly's very first bowel movement...which is just one of the many exciting things one looks for in a healthy newborn foal.

But this filly was weary and it had been some time since she had made any renewed efforts to get up, nor did Ciente make any further attempts to help her, and instead was focused on eating hay.


When the filly one more time fell back into that very cold, helpless completely prone posture, we decided we would try and help get the filly up on her legs. Even though we had gotten the filly up out of the ice water and snow and managed to get her relatively dry, there was a cold wind blowing over and we really feared that she might just give up and begin to suffer hypothermia from which she would not recover. We began rubbing her once more until she once again sat up and tried her legs. With Kevin lifting the hindquarters and me supporting the front, the filly managed to stand on her feet, leaning heavily into my arms for support and weaving, feeling like any moment she would tumble to the ground again. But after several minutes, Kevin could feel that her hind legs were steady and so he let go. She almost fell into my arms, but feeling my support she stayed up and then, I could feel that she "had it". There was a definite shift as she assumed control of her own weight (a truly amazing sensation for me to feel!) and as I slowly let go of her, this newborn filly not only stood on her own, but took her first few steps. Of course, she went down again, and we moved in to get her back up, but she did it this time all by herself. Such joy!!!



Immediately the filly began to make suckling gestures with her mouth, but since she wasn't next to Ciente she got nothing but air. We helped guide the filly to Ciente's side. Now that the filly was up, Ciente once again took up her motherly duties. She would occasionally touch the filly, sometimes shift her position, but otherwise just waited for the filly to figure out where that "on-tap foal elixir" was. It seemed to take forever and the filly was getting discouraged. I worried that she was going to give up and lay back down in that frigid ice water. There were so many near the mark attempts and many more outright misses. By now the chill had gotten to me and I was shivering and clattering my teeth. Kevin suggested we go to the house get me warmed up and come back out with more hay for Ciente. We could keep an eye on things from the house and if the filly went down, we could rush out and get her back up. I reluctantly (but wisely) agreed with Kevin's plan. Upon getting back to the house I noted that a little over three hours had passed since Ciente delivered her foal.

And of course when we went back out, the filly had indeed found where her dinner was waiting for her. Certainly Lao Tzu is right to have said "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."








As Kevin and I watched Ciente and the rest of the family band eat their early evening hay, we felt good that we were able to help this new filly make it through her first hurdles in her out-of-the-womb existence, but we also worried a little knowing she had a landscape of ice and snow to cope with and a freezing night to get through.


But the wind had died down and the baby looked robust and her and Ciente were following the movements of the rest of the herd. "Do you wish you had a barn to put them in tonight?" Kevin asked me. "Yes, and no," I replied. Yes, because it seems to me like a real hardship to be born at this time of the year, and no, because I know that Ciente's desire to stay with the herd is very strong and to remove her from it would pose difficulties for her and for Altamiro. Having felt for myself the depth of the winter coat this filly was born with and trusting in the good way the horses always take care of themselves during all kinds of weather, I believed we would see a lively, fluffy filly in the morning.

And we did.

"I then pass the whole day in the open air, and hold spiritual communion with the tendrils of the vine, which say good things to me and of which I could tell you wonders." --Goethe

This filly yesterday happily received her name. And what else could she be named except, Esperanda!


Esperando, in Portuguese means "waiting" and "expecting". It seems that from the moment of conception, it has been the destiny of this lovely feminine creature to keep an admiring public waiting. And already this little Sorraia sage has taught me a lesson in how to enjoy the beauty of whatever time it takes for things to take their natural course...

Esperanda is certainly worth the wait, I'm sure you agree!

"Because we are taught so may untruths about what we can know, about what Nature is and is not, the first step in gathering knowledge from the heart of the world is to go 'into' the world on your own, abandoning your preconceptions. No expert can tell you what is there. No book knows the living reality of it." --S. H. Buhner